The IBL gets ready for round two

The Italian Baseball League’s first round will come to a conclusion this weekend with the table already being set for round two’s four team formula. The four clubs moving on are Unipolsai Bolonga and T&A San Marino out of Division A, while in Division B it will be the Rimini Pirates and Lino’s Coffee Parma. In round two each squad will be locked up in a three game a week schedule, up from the two games played in round one. In preparation of this, each team has now picked up an extra foreign arm to help with the innings load on each teams pitching staffs. Ex ‘Big League’ Enrique Gonzalez will be heading to Rimini, T&A San Marino has announced the singing of Jesus Delgado (‘Big League’ experience as well), Jean Toledo will be wearing the colors of Parma, and finally Manauris Baez (Dominican) will be satteling the rubber in Bologna. With four clubs earning the right to move on, the other four will keep their seasons going in the first round of the Italian Cup tournament (Padova, Godo, Nettuno, Nettuno2).

Even though the first round has concluded and the overall standings will be erased after this weekends play, look for the two game series between UnipolSail Bolonga and T&A San Marino to be a good one.. a certain playoff preview. These two clubs are heading into the weekend on the up and up, with Bologna looking to keep their near perfect record in check, while on the other side of the diamond San Marino has been able to turn around their slow start in 2014 despite a number of injury obstacles. Look for the rotations to stay the same with Williamson and Panerati for Bologna, and Guerra and Simone for San Marino. On a side note, San Marino will have to do without one of their right-handed arms on the bump, D’Amico, as he is in the midst of serving a 45 game suspension for sportsmanship misconduct. Elsewhere in Division A, Padova and the Godo Knights will be going at it for seeding heading into the Italian Cup. This weekend Tommasin Padova will be getting back one of their Italian arms, Giovanni Faccini, as he’s recovered from a groin pull. Look for Padova’s foreign mound to stay the same, however in the Italian game no name has yet been released. On the other side of the ball Godo will be going with Casalini in the Italian game and Calero in the foreigner contest.

In Division B Rimini will be heading down to Nettuno to take on Nettuno2 in a two game series. For Rimini the weekend will be used as a test for the their second line of attack as they are not only preparing for round two, but also for the European Champions Cup, which is set to kick on in just over a week and a half. The other two clubs headed to the European Championship out of the IBL will be T&A San Marino and Nettuno. For Rimini in this weekend’s two game series it will be Ekstrom and Tommy Cherubini on the hill, while on Nettuno2’s side look for Gonzalez and Andrea Pizziconi to get the starts. Finally in the last two game series between Lino’s Coffee Parma and Nettuno (in Parma), the fans in attendances will be treated to a couple of extra events of which includes the retiring of Claudio Corradi’s number 8. Corradi played for Parma from 1975 to 1994, accumulating 912 hits and .316 average at the plate. Going for Parma this weekend will be Jesus Yepez in the foreigner game in preparation for round two, as this southpaw will be expected to take over the starting role in the second of the two foreigner games. In the Italian game look for a number of arms to all get a couple of innings each. On Nettuno’s side it will be Rodriguez and Florian on the hill.